MOTTE GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 1 FSU 0 EV 05:48 Assists: De Jong & Compher

Michigan capitalizes on a Ferris State defensive-zone turnover as De Jong picks off a pass that’s flung up the boards.

De Jong settles the puck and sees Motte cutting to the middle of the ice. He threads a pass through a fraction of a second before the passing lane is cut off by the Ferris State skater near the blue line.

Motte gets the puck and surveys his options. With Connor in front of his defender and screening, and with the defender in front of him giving a big gap and getting ready to attempt to block a shot, Motte decides his best option is to take a stride and shoot.

Motte releases a shot through the defender’s legs, and the puck goes through the goaltender’s five-hole before he can butterfly. Connor sliding in front certainly helps, but so does having one of the quickest releases in the country.

MOTTE GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 0 UM 1 EV 04:25 Assists: Compher & De Jong

De Jong picks up a loose puck in the neutral zone and moves it close to the blue line, but he’s shoved off the puck before he can gain the zone. The puck rolls ahead to Motte, who sees Compher opposite him and passes across.

Compher tries to corral the puck on his backhand but it hits the blade and hops over. He has to turn toward the wall and head down the boards to gather it.

As Compher comes out of his turn he’s already made the decision to pass; he must have seen Motte heading to the net before turning, because he unleashes a slap pass the second he’s got the puck. You can see there’s one Wisconsin defender who’s noticed Motte drove outside to cut inside.

The aforementioned defender isn’t able to do anything to stop the shot, though, as the pass gets through traffic and is shoveled toward the net while Motte’s still unchecked. Jurusik doesn’t know where Motte is, and he can’t shift back and over from where he was positioned for a potential Compher shot in time to get anything on Motte’s shot.

[After THE JUMP: A puck disappears under the side of the net and is called a goal. I blame gravitational waves, which seems to be a popular explanation.]

Cox goal, Michigan State

UM 0 MSU 1 EV 10:41 Assists: penalty shot

I can’t remember GBGAing a penalty shot goal before, but it fits in with how strange a game this ended up being. Cox gets the puck in the neutral zone off a nice stretch pass that puts him behind two defenders, and while Werenski starts to close in he then does this.

If you’re wondering why there was a penalty shot when the puck still ended up on net, read the third bullet below. (Also, though Racine had to make a save, the puck wasn’t shot; it rolls on net from the position pictured above.)

It looks like Cox is going to shoot from his off foot, and Racine’s in good position to stop this.

He then executes a really nice toe-drag to get the puck to his backhand. Racine has to get his leg pad down and shifts his weight to Cox’s left.

Cox pulls it back across to his forehand; this gets Racine to his left, which opens up the five-hole long enough for Cox to get the shot he was looking for.

MOTTE GOAL, MICHIGAN

PSU 0 UM 1 EV 08:55 Assists: Connor & Compher

Penn State tries to clear the zone and can’t; Compher picks the puck off, carries laterally along the blue line, and fires a long shot into the mess of people in front of the net. Connor and two PSU skaters get their blades on the puck at the same time, sending it airborne.

Skoff doesn’t see this and has no idea where the puck is. His defensemen do, as they wave at it in an attempt to bat it aside as it falls into the crease. Compher charges the net and draws the attention of one defender, while Connor draws the attention of another. These two draw one defensemen away from the net; in the screen cap below the other (#11) is turning to pursue. All of the defenders appear to be more concerned with where Michigan’s skaters are located instead of where the puck is located. Motte, who’s in front of two defenders, see that the puck has rolled toward the far-side post and is close to Skoff’s leg pad.

He launches himself in that direction, pushing the puck over the line in the process.

Berger goal, Penn State

PSU 1 UM 1 EV 13:49 Assists: Varley & Marsh

At the end of GBGA last week, I wrote about how dangerous Penn State was when you let them cycle. They’re a puck possession team, and the clearest path to success for them would come from Michigan being unable to clear the puck out of their defensive zone.

That’s exactly what happened here, with Penn State maintaining possession for an extended period of time and working the puck up and down the boards. We start with Varley carrying the puck along the boards. He’s matched by Kile. The problematic piece of cycling is the confusion it can cause defensively; with guys skating in circles and weaving between opposing defenders, assignments can get lost.

That happens here, as Piazza shoves Berger and sticks with him for a second before drifting toward the top of the faceoff circle.

Obviously I don’t know what was communicated on-ice, but my best guess is that Piazza thought he had switched with Nieves and Nieves didn’t know that. Varley shoots, Racine stops it, and the rebound ends up to his left, where an unchecked Berger awaits. Selman attempts to lock him up with his stick, but Berger’s able to backhand it past Racine.

WARREN GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 1 OSU 0 EV 01:45 Assists: Calderone & Martin

The puck rolls back to Martin off of a faceoff, and he calmly moves it down the boards when he sees a defender screaming toward him.

Calderone’s touch pass is so quick that he doesn’t have it on his stick long enough for that alone to justify a screen cap. Tomkins’ reaction, however, makes it worth drawing up, as he’s still standing and looking at Calderone when Warren’s about to shoot.

Warren’s already extended, the puck is halfway to the net, and Tomkins has yet to drop into his butterfly. He whiffs on this one, getting his pads extended after the shot’s in the net.

Joshua goal, Ohio State

UM 1 OSU 1 EV 09:17 Assists: Greco & Moser

Greco drives wide and shoots, but Cecconi smothers the shot. The puck ends up falling behind them, and Greco somehow manages to flip it in the air. It hits the top of the net and eventually ends up behind it.

Joshua turns and (accidentally?) knocks Werenski’s stick out of his hands; Werenski bends to retrieve it, while Joshua skates ahead, grabs the puck, and brings it to the side of the net for a wraparound attempt.

Racine is able to paddle the puck away, but he does so directly in front of him. That’s…not ideal. I mean, I understand the poke check, but smothering it would be nice.

Joshua reaches back about as far as humanly possible to gather the puck, and a split second later Cecconi and Kile’s blades come together to create a mini-wall in front of Racine. Somehow Joshua flips is over that and inside the post to Racine’s right. Hard for him to stop a point blank attempt where the guy’s unchecked.

Selman comes up to the point to try and check Draeger, but he avoids Selman and skates deeper into the zone. Nieves sees this and steps up to cover.

Appleton is in the opposite faceoff circle banging his stick on the ice and Draeger obliges, passing through the empty part of the slot.

Appleton one-times the puck and it hits Cecconi's skate, changing angles and easily beating Racine. There's nothing he can do about a deflection off of a skate that close to the net; it's also worth noting that this play is otherwise well defended.

[After THE JUMP: Jake Hildebrand stars as Devin Gardner in "Oh. Oh Wow. We Are So Sorry."]